Moscow, Damascus fulfill all conditions of truce in Syria — Russian Defense Ministry
A regime of cessation of hostilities has been established across Syria on 27 February 2016
MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Moscow and Damascus have fulfilled all conditions of the truce in Syria since 27 February 2016, whereas the United States has only managed to convince some groups to cease fire, and violations resulted in the death of about 13,000 Syrian civilians, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Friday.
"Since February 27, 2016, in order to reduce the level of violence, and cut the number of victims among civilians, a regime of cessation of hostilities has been established across Syria," Antonov said.
"The Russian Federation and the government of Syria have ensured imposition of the regime of cessation of hostilities in required terms. American partners have only managed to convince some formations of the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ to stop fire, whereas over 100 gangs continued active hostilities," he said.
Antonov said that over the February 27 — September 1, 2016 period, a total of 2,031 violations of the regime of cessation of hostilities have been registered on the part of "moderate opposition" detachments, which has resulted in the death of 3,532 Syrian army soldiers and 12,800 civilians. A total of 8,949 servicemen and 25,642 civilians have been wounded.
He also said Washington has not ensured observation of the ceasefire regime by the opposition during a new truce effective from September 12 in line with Russian-US agreements.
"We have once again ensured observation of the regime of cessation of hostilities by Syria’s government forces, and organized monitoring of implementation of agreements with the use of video cameras and drones in real time mode," Antonov said.
At the same time, he said, detachments of the "moderate opposition" violated the truce 302 times on September 12-19. "A total of 83 civilians died, another 252 people were wounded. Government troops lost 153 people," he said.
The deputy minister said that despite constant violations, Russia twice extended the truce regime — by 48 and by 72 hours, as a result of which the overall duration of the truce totaled seven days.